OR, A BRIEF RELATION OF THE EXCEEDING
MERCY OF GOD IN CHRIST, TO HIS
POOR SERVANT JOHN BUNYAN
PUBLISHER'S FOREWORD
John Bunyan was born at Elstow, near Bedford, England, sometime in the
fall of 1628, the first of three children born to Thomas and Margaret
Bunyan. The parish register indicates that he was baptized on November
30, 1628.
In Grace Abounding Bunyan describes his descent as "of a low and
inconsiderable generation." He had particular disdain for his father's
house; to him it was "of a rank that is meanest and most despised of all
the families in the land."
Sir Walter Scott thought John Bunyan was of gypsy descent, because his
father was a traveling tinker, a mender of pots and pans. But
historians view the occupation as somewhat like that of "village
blacksmith." The Bunyans were not homeless; they were landowners, but
of peasant stock.
Bunyan's schooling was of brief duration, and it wasn't long before he
was assisting his father and learning the trade himself. On his
sixteenth birthday Bunyan joined Cromwell's New Model Army, introducing
him to the Puritan movement. After this military stint, he settled down
as a tinker ("brazier") and married at the age of twenty.
In 1653 Bunyan joined the Puritan Free Church in Bedford, and in 1657 he
took on his first assignment as a "field preacher." At this time there
were scores of men, most with little education, who were preaching to
Nonconformist audiences throughout England. With the restoration of
Charles II to the throne, these preachers were suspect and subject to
arrest. Refusing to refrain from preaching, Bunyan was arrested in 1660
and imprisoned-for more than eleven years.
Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, written during this
imprisonment, is the spiritual autobiography of Bunyan, the traveling
tinker who became the eminent preacher and author. It is in the genre
of Augustine's Confessions and Thomas a Kempis's Imitation of Christ.
It is not a detailed account of Bunyan's early life, for it tells us
very little of his youth, education, military experiences, and
marriages.
Written in 1666, Grace Abounding chronicles Bunyan's spiritual journey
from a profane life filled with cursing, blasphemy, and Sabbath
desecration to a new creation in Christ Jesus. Some commentators on
Bunyan's life and work are of the opinion that Bunyan wrote too
disparagingly of his early life. George Offor, editor of a three volume
compilation of Bunyan's works, observes:
A great difference of opinion has been expressed by learned men as to
whether Bunyan's account of himself is to be understood literally, as it
respects his bad conduct before his conversion. or whether he views
himself through a glass, by which his evil habits are magnified. No one
can doubt his perfect honesty. He plainly narrates his bad, as well as
his redeeming qualities; nor does his narrative appear to be
exaggerated.
Grace Abounding is an autobiography that begins with guilt and despair
and ends with a heart "full of comfort," a thankful heart for "grace
abounding."
Those who have read both Grace Abounding and The Pilgrim's Progress will
realize that The Pilgrim's Progress, in substantial measure, is the same
life as that described in Grace Abounding, but in allegory rather than
straightforward narrative. George Offor makes this point when he quotes
a Dr. Cheever:
As you read the "Grace Abounding", you are ready to say at every step,
Here is the future author of the "Pilgrim's Progress". It is as if you
stood beside some great sculptor, and watched every movement of the
chisel, having seen his design; so that at every blow some new trait of
beauty in the future comes clearly into view.
Ernest W. Bacon, in a recent biography based on the latest historical
research makes the same point:
The experiences he [Bunyan] records in Grace Abounding are seen in the
characters of The Pilgrim's Progress, and there is little doubt that he
could not have written the great allegory had he not experienced God's
saving mercy recounted in the autobiography. It has an undying vitality
and perpetual youth about it, is a record of Puritan experience
unsurpassed, and a spiritual stimulus of great value.
The importance of Grace Abounding is summed up by Hugh Martin:
Grace Abounding is among the greatest stories of God's dealings with the
human soul-to be put on the shelf beside such treasures as Augustine's
Confessions, Law's Serious Call, Baxter's Autobiography, and Wesley's
account of his own spiritual travail.